The Flyers made a triumphant return to home ice with a 3-2 OT win over the Capitals. Conventional sports wisdom holds that teams are often susceptible to letdowns when playing the final game of a road trip. Similarly, teams often struggle in their first game back at home following a road trip.
Over the last two games the Flyers managed to buck that conventional wisdom thanks to consecutive 3-2 wins. Both wins were similar in that they took an early lead, let the opposition climb back into it, and then did what they had to do in order to secure the win. Is this a sign of a good team overcoming the challenges of a demanding schedule, or a mini-trend which bears monitoring?
Video highlights, including Andrej Meszaros' game winner, after the jump...
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Jeff Carter got the Flyers on the board early - scoring just 1:31 into the first period. The Caps had possession in the Flyers zone and played a puck back to the point. Carter was in the right place at the right time as the Caps were unable to keep the puck in the zone. With a full head of steam he picked up the puck, skated into the Washington end, and circled the net banging a wrap-around in off Caps goalie Michal Neuvirth.
Carter became the second Flyer to reach the 20-goal plateau on the season, joining Danny Briere.Carter’s goal scoring streak has now reached four games; he has four goals and one assist in that span.
Just over a minute later Jody Shelley and D.J. King dropped the gloves. Both players landed a few decent shots, but I scored the bout a draw. (Enjoy the Russian commentary below)
News
Also: check out this video from reader Dan F. of the Shelley family watching the fight in the crowd.
The first period would end with the Flyers leading 1-0.
Washington started the second period with Semyon Varlamov replacing an under the weather Neuvirth in goal. Claude Giroux beat Varlamov 13:38 into the period. Carter, who was in the midst of one of his patented hit-the-turbo-button-skate-faster-than-everyone-else shifts, again beat the Caps to the puck and feed a pass to Giroux who was driving to the net.
Uncle Claude was stoned on the initial shot, but stuck with the play and beat Varlamov to double to Flyers lead.
The Flyers were cruising along in the third period when their bewildering habit of attempting cross ice passes from inside their own blue line finally caught up with them. Marcus Johansson knocked down a Ville Leino clearance attempt, blew by Leino, and got off a backhand, which Bob stopped. Former Flyer Mike Knuble did what former Flyer Mike Knuble does and banged in a Knuble-special from a foot away.
Following the Knuble goal Alexander Ovechkin started to get his legs under him. Forty seconds after cutting the lead in half Ovie scored the controversial tying goal. Camped out at the left post the puck popped over to Ovie, who gloved it to the ice and swung his stick. The puck trickled past Bobrovsky for an apparent goal. The play was reviewed by Toronto to determine whether Ovechkin's stick indeed made contact with the puck before it crossed the goal line. I didn't see his stick touch the puck, but who knows what goes on in the war room up in Toronto. Bottom line, the game was now tied at two.
After coughing up the lead the Flyers reestablished their dominance, but were unable to notch a game winner in regulation. They didn't have to wait too long into OT to send the WFC faithful home happy. Matt Carle took advantage of the extra room on the ice and easily gained the zone. He spotted Meszaros crossing the blue line and dropped a pass right on his tape.
Meszaros held the puck for a beat while James van Riemsdyk set up camp in front of Varlamov. Andrej torqued a wrist shot past the screened Caps goalie to give the Flyers the 3-2 win.
Notes
- Bob stopped 23 of 25 Washington shots.
- Kimmo Timonen was a rock in the back. He made multiple plays on Ovechkin in space. Timonen had 3 hits and 2 blocked shots in 23:42 of ice time.
- All three games between the Flyers and Capitals so far this season have gone beyond regulation. Six of the last 15 games between the clubs since the start of the 2007-08 season have required overtime and/or a shootout.
- Meszaros finished the night with a plus-2 rating to push his league-leading total to plus-29.
- Amazingly, the Flyersdid not allow the Capitals a power play in the game. It’s the firsttime they’ve gone an entire game without giving up a power play sinceMarch 16, 2010 at Nashville.